1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a current detecting device, and more particularly to an inexpensive and small-sized current detecting device suitable for application to a pulse width modulation inverter (referred to hereinafter merely as a PWM inverter) and a control device therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an apparatus such as a PWM inverter which generates a desired output current by switching a d.c. voltage, ripple appears in the output current due to the d.c. voltage switching operation. It is required to detect the output current of the PWM inverter and produce a current signal representing the output current to be used for control of the PWM inverter. However, the current signal may include a ripple component corresponding to the ripple of the output current. A method for reducing this ripple component contained in the current signal is known as disclosed in, for example, Japanese patent laid-open application JP-A No. 58-198165, in which current detection is executed in synchronism with specific timing of a PWM signal on the basis of which the switching operation is carried out. This method utilizes the fact that, when the current is detected in synchronism with the neighborhood of positive and negative peak values of a carrier wave signal used for generating the PWM signal, the detected current value represents a current flowing at a timing corresponding substantially to the middle point of the conduction period or non-conduction period of the individual switching elements constituting the PWM inverter. Since the current value detected with the above timing is free from the adverse effect of ripple, such a current detector is not only effectively applicable to execution of current control according to discrete computation by a microprocessor or the like, but also effectively used as a ripple smoothing filter in an analog current control system.
In JP-A No. 58-198165 cited above, a current detector of isolated type, for example, that using a Hall effect element is employed as means for detecting the actual phase current flowing through each of the individual phases of the PWM inverter.
However, such isolated type current detectors are expensive when compared with shunt resistors or the like commonly used for the purpose of current detection and have a large size when compared with simple resistors. Thus, the size of the PWM inverter including the current detector could not be reduced because of the factors described above.
On the other hand, Japanese patent laid-open application JP-A No. 58-172995 discloses a method in which shunt resistors are connected between lower-side arms of a PWM inverter and a minus terminal of a d.c. power source of the inverter to detect load currents of the inverter.
However, the value of current flowing through each of the shunt resistors does not represent the accurate value of the load current when a switching element in the lower-side arm, to which this shunt resistor is connected, is in its non-conducting state. No solution to this problem is described anywhere in JP-A No. 58-172995 cited above.
The term "lower-side arm" is used, throughout the specification, to indicate the circuit including main switching elements and a fly wheel diode connected between the negative or minus terminal of the d.c. power source and a load, while the term "upper-side arm" is used to indicate the circuit including the main switching elements and the fly wheel diode connected between the positive terminal of the d.c. power source and the load.